OF THE OAKS. 159 



exercised, they displayed an instinct deserving 

 paiiicular notice. Concealed within the cavities 

 which they had formed when caterpillars, by 

 folding down the edges of the leaves, and secur- 

 ing them in that position with a little of the glu- 

 tinous secretion discharged by the spinners, they 

 awaited their final transformation ; - but, as if 

 aware that so confined a situation would present 

 too many obstacles for a delicate and newly dis- 

 closed moth to overcome, without incurring a 

 great risk of sustaining injury, at the important 

 crisis, they made their way to the mouths of their 

 retreats, and protruding themselves as far as they 

 could consistently with security, their exterior 

 covering ultimately gave way, and, in July, the 

 insects made their appearance in the imago or 

 perfect state. 



Having procured some of the larvae of this 

 moth, for the purpose of observing the meta- 

 morphoses they undergo, and identifying their 

 species, I put them into clean phials of transpa- 

 rent glass, the perpendicular sides of which they 

 readily ascended by means of lines of their own 

 spinnmg, after the manner of the caterpillar of 

 the goat moth.* This circumstance induced me 



• Mr. Curtis, in his British Entomoloo^y, vol. II. plate 60, has 

 given an excellent figure of this caterpillar, representing it in the 

 act of climbing. 



